Buying a house on the Costa Brava

The coast is not one market but many. Each stretch has its own landscape and its own kind of house: fishing villages in the coves around Palafrugell and Begur, year-round towns such as Palamós and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, and the resort life of Platja d'Aro, with green valleys and urbanisations behind them all.

That is why the first question we ask buyers is not about the budget but about how they will use the house. Somewhere to live all year needs a town that stays open in winter. A summer house can be in a quiet cove. A house you plan to let needs a tourist licence, and that rules out more properties than most people expect.

Our office is in Sant Antoni de Calonge, in the centre of the stretch we cover, so we see the houses ourselves and know the streets they are in. We sell, look after houses and renovate them, and our town pages describe each place in detail.

The name Costa Brava, the wild or rugged coast, was coined by the journalist Ferran Agulló and first appeared in print in 1908, in La Veu de Catalunya. At first it described only a short stretch. It was later extended all the way to the French border and became the official name in 1965.

Much of the coast can still be walked on the camí de ronda, the paths once used by fishermen, smugglers and border guards, which now form part of the long-distance GR 92. Behind the coast rise the Gavarres, whose highest point, Puig d'Arques, reaches 531 metres.